Koltsevaya Line

5  Koltsevaya Line (Circle Line)
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
System	Moscow Metro
Locale	Moscow
Stations	12
Operation
Opened	1 January 1950
Operator(s)	Moskovsky Metropoliten
Character	Underground
Rolling stock	81-740.4/741.4
Technical
Line length	19.4 km (12.1 mi)
Track gauge	1,520 mm (4 ft 11 27⁄32 in)
Electrification	Third rail
Route map  9  Novoslobodskaya Prospekt Mira  6   2  Belorusskaya Komsomolskaya  1  to Krasnaya Presnya yard Kurskaya  3   10   7  Krasnopresnenskaya Taganskaya  7   8  Moskva River Moskva River  3   4  Kiyevskaya Vodootvodny Canal Moskva River Paveletskaya  2   1  Park Kultury Dobryninskaya  9  Moskva River Oktyabrskaya  6

The Koltsevaya Line (Russian: Кольцева́я ли́ния, Circle Line,^[1] IPA: [kəlʲtsɨˈvajə ˈlʲinʲɪjə]), (Line 5), is a railway line of the Moscow Metro. The line was built in 1950-1954 as a circle route orbiting central Moscow, and became crucial to the transfer patterns of passengers.

Of all the lines, the Circle Line remains the most famous. It is notable for stations built at the height of Stalinist architecture. Notable stations on the Circle Line include Komsomolskaya, Novoslobodskaya and Kiyevskaya.

History

In the initial plans of the Metro's development there was no provision for the Circle Line. Instead it was planned for complete cross-city routes ("diameters") to cross the city centre with interchange stations at their intersections. However, after the opening of the second stage in 1938 it was clear from the excessive loads on those junctions, that this plan would be insufficient to deal with the growing number of passengers as the system expanded. An urban legend suggests that Joseph Stalin himself suggested the line when he placed a coffee cup on the original development map (with no ring) and then lifting it and leaving a circular stain around the centre of the city and said "It's your main fault, it should be built". It is thought this is the reason for the line's brown colour on all metro maps.

In principle the alignment of the ring was also debated, whether to use the Garden Ring avenue that encircles the centre or a wider circumference. In the end it was decided to partially align the southern path along the Sadovoye Koltso, and let the northern part deviate to connect most of Moscow's rail terminals. This solved an important logistical problem, because, due to the layout of Russia's railroads, it would be impossible to travel from a region on one side of Moscow to another without having to make a manual transfer from one terminal to another.

Construction began shortly after the end of the war, and the first stage was opened in 1950 from Park Kultury to Kurskaya, in 1952 a second segment completed the northern deviation up to Belorusskaya and in 1954 the circumference was linked.

The construction of the ring allowed for massive changes in the passenger flow patterns around Moscow, and allowed a systematic development platform for many future lines. A total of seven radial lines began at the ring, four of which later linked up in the centre to become diameters.

Timeline

Name changes

Transfers

The Koltsevaya line, unlike other lines of Moscow Metro, does not service any stations that belong to that line exclusively; rather, all its stations are transfer stations, linking to other lines, as shown below:

Rolling stock

The line is serviced by the Krasnaya Presnya depot (No.4) and was the first one to adopt the 81-717/714 model trains in 1978. But replacement of those models by the 81-740.4/81-741.4, which started operating in revenue service on the line since early 2010, was completed by 1 December 2011.^[2] Four 81-717/714 trains from the Krasnaya Presnya depot are now in service on Filevskaya line.

Recent developments and future plans

Today the line is one of busiest, and the ever-rising passenger flows during rush hours are noticeably felt as most of the stations are over half a century old. In 1998 a second entrance was opened at Belorusskaya and there are plans to equip Park Kultury and Komsomolskaya with similar ones.

Many restoration works are carried out to improve the old line, recently Novoslobodskaya had major restoration work carried out, including replacement of lighting and retouching on the stained glass masterpieces by Pavel Korin. The vestibule of Taganskaya was closed in 2005 to replace old escalators and upgrade with new turnstiles and also cosmetically renovate it, this was re-opened in 2006, and shortly afterwards Dobryninskaya followed suit for a similar upgrade.

Despite the fact that when opened, there were six stations left for future transfer provisions, this turned out to be too small for the growing system. Two stations are planned to be opened on the Koltsevaya Line to provide transfer points to two future radii. The first one, Suvorovskaya (also referred to as Ploshchad Suvorova) located between Prospekt Mira and Novoslobodskaya will provide a transfer to Dostoyevskaya of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line. However, though construction has begun on Suvorovskaya it is currently frozen for financial reasons and the station will not be complete in time for the opening of the Dmitrovsky radius.

The other planned station, presently dubbed Rossiyskaya, is to be built between Krasnopresnenskaya and Kiyevskaya to become a transfer point to the Kalininsko-Solntsevskaya Line when its two segments are joined. However the construction is not currently scheduled to begin before 2020.

References

External links

Route map: Google

• Photos of the Koltcevaya line on Virtual photogallery Metro (RU)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Koltsevaya Line.